In one week, the nation will celebrate the 200th birthday of our most revered president, Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 14, 1865). To commemorate the birthday of our 16th president and the issuing of the first penny a century ago, the U.S. Mint is issuing four new pennies. The “heads” side of the penny bearing Lincoln’s image remains the same while the “tails” side will alternate four new designs which represent the four major aspects of President Lincoln’s life:
Birth and early childhood in Kentucky (1809-1816)
Formative years in Indiana (1816-1830)
Professional Life in Illinois (1830-1861)
Presidency in Washington, DC (1861-1865)
Click here to see the unveiling of the images of the new coins at a ceremony held last September in Washington, D.C.
I hadn’t intended to write about Abe Lincoln today. Rather, for days now, I’ve gorged myself reading about his wife Mary, hoping soon to come to the end of the book and Internet material on her and get down to blogging. Well that is an impossible task. There is no end of Lincolnology. At last count, there were upward of 15,000 books about Abe and Mary, more than about any other person except Jesus.
A visit to the official website of the Lincoln Bicentennial assures me that I can blog all year on the Lincolns and be in step with the rest of the country, as celebrations and exhibits go on for the next eleven months.
While I was googling the image of the Lincoln Memorial which I present here, I got all misty-eyed.
Lincoln statue within the Lincoln Memorial
What a great man Abraham Lincoln was. After reading about his life with Mary, I come away with even more admiration. What a difficult woman Mary was and so selfish, too (see my Feb. 3, 2009 blog below). I’ll give her credit for her abolitionist efforts but what a drag she was on our president during the darkest time of our nation’s history! She was jealous of his time away from her. He was running the country!
When I was in elementary school, February was the month we celebrated two presidents’ birthdays – Lincoln’s on the 12th and Washington’s on the 22nd. This was before there was an official “Presidents’ Day,” a day set aside to celebrate the birth of all presidents and before February became “Black History Month.” My teachers would always have a beautiful bulletin board displayed with a calendar, white doilies with red hearts for Valentine’s Day, and black cardboard cut-outs of Lincoln’s and Washington’s silhouettes. I love February.
I learned that Lincoln was poor and lived in a log cabin, that he was humble, gave speeches outdoors, and chopped firewood. We heard the Mason Weems fable that Washington could not lie to his father about chopping down a cherry tree.
My birthday comes two days after Washington’s. As a result, I’ve always had cherry pie instead of cake for my special dessert, because of George chopping down that cherry tree. On one birthday, my grandmother Mimi made cherry tarts for my guests and me and we went to the movies to see Lucille Ball and Bob Hope in the comedy, “Fancy Pants.”
Back to the Lincoln penny, isn’t it ironic that a president who grew up “friendless, uneducated, penniless…” should find himself commemorated on a penny? Happy Early Birthday, Abe. You rock.
Lisa's History Room 
Lisa,
You are such a prolific blogger!! Thanks for your information on Abraham Lincoln, this 200th birthday of his. My parents were from Pike Co., Il. and there are some Lincoln sites there. In Pittsfield, the Co. seat, there were some Lincoln-Douglas debates and I think 3 of his Secretary of States were from there.
Also, regarding your World War II blog. My parents left the farm in Illinois to go to Washington DC in 1941. When my dad was overseas during the war, my mom lived in a house with 7 other women in similar situations. Mom worked for the Navy Department then. I have a great photo album of the women during those days. They were interviewed by the paper and kept in contact and had reunions for many years. My parents also lived in a boarding house in DC and one of our neighbors lived in a primarily “Texan” boarding house in DC during the war.
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Fascinating, Karen. What did your mom do for the Navy?
It’s interesting to note that before apt. complexes and hotels were so common, people like your Mom living in the house with 7 other women, lived among strangers for necessity’s sake. Tom’s mother trained to be an airline hostess pre-WW II then had to switch to nursing, because of the war. The nurses lived in dorms together.
My mom’s stepgrandmother ran a boarding house in Greenville, Texas, after her husband’s death. In the fifties, my grandparents in Corpus Christi regularly took in “roomers.” At the turn of the century, pre-income tax, a lot of middle and upper middle class family could afford servants, giving the household an Upstairs, Downstairs sort of flavor. But it was not a bad deal for the servants. They appreciated being housed. Once income tax stripped many familes of surplus income, servants were turned out of quarters jobless.
Thanks for commenting. I love the history you are adding for this site’s readers. Keep coming back.
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Very interesting about the birthday parties
and the cherry tarts.
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Carolyn, these are fond memories.
Lisa
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